1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bill processor which is used in vending machines, money changing machines, game token exchange machines, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
A bill handling machine such as a vending machine includes a bill processor for judging whether inserted bills are genuine or not and for accommodating only the bills judged as genuine.
Such a bill processor generally comprises a bill transport passage for guiding bills inserted through a bill insert slot to the main body of the machine, bill judging means for judging whether the transported bills are genuine or not, and a bill stacking mechanism for sequentially pushing the bills judged as genuine into a stacker to stack them therein.
FIG. 33 is a partially broken-away view of a conventional bill processor in which the bill processor 1 includes a main body 2 which is formed into a generally inverted L shape as viewed from its side. The main body 2 is formed at its upper left end with a bill insert slot 3. The bill insert slot 3 is arranged such as to be mounted to a door (not shown) which forms a front side of the bill handling machine and through which a fore end of the bill insert slot 3 is exposed externally.
Provided immediately downstream of the bill insert slot 3 is a first horizontal bill transport passage 4 which guides a bill inserted through the bill insert slot 3 to a rightward direction of the drawing. Disposed in the middle of the first bill transport passage 4 is a bill transport means 8 which includes a transport belt 5 and follower rollers 6 and 7 which are brought into pressing contact with the transport belt 5. A bill judging means 19 such as a magnetic sensor or a photo sensor is disposed along the first horizontal bill transport passage 4, and judges whether the bill is genuine or not.
In the operation of the bill processor 1, when a bill is inserted through the bill insert slot 3, a bill detection sensor (not shown) disposed in the bill insert slot 3 detects the presence or absence of the inserted bill and generates a detection signal in response to the presence of the bill. The detection signal causes the transport belt 5 to be forwardly rotated in the counterclockwise direction, whereby the inserted bill is horizontally transported in the rightward direction along the first bill transport passage 4.
The inserted bill transported to the rightward direction by the transport belt 5 eventually reaches the bill judging means 19 located approximately midway of the transport belt 5, where the bill is judged whether it is genuine or not.
When the inserted bill is judged as false by the bill judging means 19, the transport belt 5 is rotated reversely (in the clockwise direction) in response to a signal outputted from the bill judging means 19 so that it is returned to the bill insert slot 3.
When the bill judging means 19 judges that the inserted bill is genuine, the transport belt 5 is kept rotated forwardly so that the inserted bill is further transported horizontally in the right direction along the first bill transport passage 4. Then, the bill is transported downward along a second bill transport passage 9 which is disposed around the middle of the main body 2 vertically and downwardly with substantially 90 degrees with respect to the first bill transport passage 4.
In the second bill transport passage 9, a second transport belt 10 is disposed. The second transport belt 10 rotates in the clockwise direction by following the forward rotation of the transport belt 5. Thus, the fore end of the inserted bill judged to be genuine is eventually transported into a lower side of a stacker 11.
Further provided in the second bill transport passage 9 is a bill stacking mechanism 12 which acts to sequentially push the inserted bill judged as genuine into the stacker 11.
The bill stacking mechanism 12 includes a link mechanism 13 of a pantagraph structure which functions, when the inserted bill judged as genuine is guided down to a predetermined position of the stacker 11 along the second bill transport passage 9, to reciprocatively move in the rightward direction of the drawing to stack the genuine bills in the stacker 11 one over another, as shown in FIG. 34.
In this connection, when a full state of the stacker 11 in which bills are fully stacked in the stacker 11, is detected by a stacker-full sensor (not shown), a money collecting person collects the fully-stacked bills from the stacker 11.
In the conventional bill processor 1 as shown in FIG. 33, the money collecting person releases the engagement between the main body 2 and stacker 11 by means of a latch means (not shown), turns an upper cover of the stacker 11 in the clockwise direction around a shaft G provided at a lower end of the stacker 11 to open the upper cover, and then draws upward a bundle of the bills which is sometimes called bill bundle in this specification (although bills are not bound tied together) stacked in the stacker 11.
Although omitted in the bill processor 1 of FIG. 33 to simplify the description, a shutter for opening and closing the first bill transport passage 4 is disposed at a downstream side of the bill insert slot 3.
The shutter 14, as shown in FIG. 35 by a partially broken-away perspective view of a part of the machine of FIG. 33, comprises upper and lower chutes 15 and 16 defining the first bill transport passage 4, slits 15a and 16a formed in the upper and lower chutes 15 and 16 in the traversing direction of the chutes, and a plate 17 slidable vertically relative to the slits 15a and 16a by a motor and a rack/pinion mechanism (both not shown).
The shutter 14 may be disposed immediately downstream of the bill insert slot 3 or between the first bill transport passage 4 and second bill transport passage 9. Description will be made for the structure in which the shutter 14 is disposed immediately downstream of the bill insert slot 3.
When the bill judging means 19 judges that the inserted bill transported along the first bill transport passage 4 is genuine, the shutter 14 is operated to prevent the inserted bill from being illegally pulled out by a user. More particularly, when the inserted bill passes toward the downstream side of the shutter 14, the plate 17 is moved downward by a predetermined distance by means of a motor (not shown) through a rack/pinion mechanism, and is passed through the slits 15a and 16a to close the passage defined between the upper and lower chutes 15 and 16. When the inserted bill is accommodated in the stacker, the plate 17 is moved upward to open the passage defined between the upper and lower chutes 15 and 16.
In the bill processor 1, the inserted bill can be sequentially accommodated in the stacker until the number of exceeds the capacity of the stacker. When the number of the stacked bills exceeds the allowable range, a subsequent bill is rejected.
To this end, in the conventional bill processor 1 shown in FIG. 33, there is provided a stacker-full detection switch for detecting the fully-stacked state of the stacker, which comprises photo sensors.
More specifically, in the bill processor 1, a light emitting element and a light receiving element (both not shown) are disposed at both sides of the stacker 11 as spaced from each other by a predetermined distance. When the number of stacked bills is increased until a part of a tray 13a receiving the stacked bills interrupts a passage between the aforementioned two elements, judgement is made that the stacker is full of bills.
Meanwhile, there has recently been a demand to make thinner the depth of a vending machine so as to prevent protrusion of the vending machine into a public space such as a pavement. To meet the demand, the bill processor that is mounted in the vending machine should be made thinner.
For this purpose, it is necessary to shorten the length L of the first bill transport passage 4 of FIG. 33 which ranges from the tip end of the bill insert slot 3 to the end (start end of the second bill transport passage 9) of the first bill transport passage 4. However, the shortening of the first bill transport passage causes a problem since various devices including the bill judging means 19 must be installed along the first bill transport passage. Therefore, it is impossible to shorten a length L of the first bill transport passage 4 to a large extent. As a result, it is difficult to decrease the dimension M of the bill processor 1 in its depth direction and correspondingly to make thinner the depth of the bill handling machine.
Further, the conventional bill processor 1 has another problem that since the bill judging means 19 is horizontally disposed along the first horizontal bill transport passage 4, foreign matters such as dust tend to deposit on the detection surfaces of the respective sensors during passage of the bill, which leads to incorrect judgement of the inserted bill as to the genuineness of the bill. In order to maintain the performance of the bill judging means 19, it is necessary to disassemble the machine at a frequent interval so as to clean the detection surfaces of the sensors, which increases troublesome maintenance works.
Furthermore, the conventional bill processor 1 is defective in that since bills are merely sequentially stacked in the stacker 11 one over another, when it is desired for the money collecting person to collect the bills from the stacker 11, the tends to be scattered, requiring careful collecting work.
Still another problem of the conventional bill processor 1 is that, since the width of the slits 15a and 16a of the shutter 14 (FIG. 31) through which the plate 17 passed is wider than the width of a bill 18 being transported, when the bill 18 is curled at its end, the curled end of the bill tends to go into the slit 16a (or 15a) as shown by the cross-sectional view of the major part of FIG. 35, which results in bill jamming.
In addition, in the conventional bill processor 1, the light emitting element and the light receiving element are disposed at the both sides of the stacker 11 as spaced from each other by the predetermined distance in order to detect that full state of the stacker 11. This means that separated optical parts such as the photo sensors and a space for mounting of these parts are required, which increases the number of steps for assembling the processor, the dimension of the stacker and the production cost of the stacker.